Monday, November 14, 2016

Vendee Globe / Advantage Alex Thomson.

In the 1100hrs UTC rankings, advantage Alex Thomson. In just four hours, the skipper of Hugo Boss has doubled his lead over his nearest rivals.

Crédit : A Thomson / Hugo Boss / Vendée Globe

We need to view these changes with a certain amount of caution, but for the moment the start of the passage through the Doldrums has been very favourable for Alex Thomson. While this lunchtime, Sébastien Josse said he was practically at a standstill and that he had “changed the sails more in the past few hours than since the start of the race” because he hardly has any wind or just one knot, Alex Thomson has managed to find his way straight ahead towards the south, sailing not as far west as the others. He is at 15 knots, or in other words at least 5 knots more than the other frontrunners.

The result is that in 4 hours, in terms of distance to the finish, Alex Thomson has practically doubled his lead over his closest rivals, who are now between 64 and 89 miles behind him, as opposed to 32 to 70 at 0700hrs this morning. A perfect illustration of how unpredictable the Doldrums can be. Will the British sailor continue to extend his lead or will the reverse happen? Anything is possible in this area in the middle of the Atlantic.